Kesennuma

June 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Kesen-numa is a small coastal city in the northern part of Miyagi Prefecture. During the horrific time of the 03/11 disasters, it was famous for two things. First was the enormous tanker that the relentless waves heaved several kilometers inland. 

 
The other was fires that raged for days on end. Needless to say, the devastation was horrendous. And unfortunately, rebuilding has been slow. But gradually in some areas progress is being made.

One of the most newsworthy recent changes involved the displaced tanker. Until a few months ago, debates sallied back and forth about what to do with her. One side wanted to turn the area into a memorial park, with that huge ship as the major focal point. But the other side was animate to remove all evidence of that time and to boldly move forward. Finally a survey was taken (albeit incomplete), and 68% opted to get rid of that humbled carcass. So now instead of the astonishment of a tanker lodged far inland next to a hill, there are bulldozers, trucks, and backhoes leveling the land, and making mounds of earth for blockage against the unpredictable sea.
   

Even though the controversial tanker has been removed, tragic landmarks from that blistering time still dot the cityscape. One middle school, for example, has been left pretty much as it was. 

                  

 
And semi-collapsed buildings have merely been covered with plastic sheets. They have not yet been dismantled or repaired.

  

(two years ago) (now)
 
Much of the port area is empty lots.

 

To tell the truth, there have been many hurdles to overcome before rebuilding can really get under way. Many of the proposals for the reconstruction, like building a huge sea wall, come from government officials. They may be national civil servants in Tokyo, or more regional ones in the prefecture or city. But their practical ideas are at loggerheads with what many of the locals themselves want. Of course, everyone would like to see Kesen-numa on its feet again. But how to do that appropriately is causing this ongoing tug-of-war.

Kesen-numa is predominately made up of fishermen. There are farmers, too, and small shopkeepers, but basically the whole region is devoted to the ocean. Those sturdy folks have lived close to nature for centuries. So they are used to working with the elements, even when Mother Nature blasts them with her destructive side. The local population, therefore, wants a more natural solution than a concrete wall on how to deal with the sometimes-angry sea.

In fact, a group called “Mori wa Umi no Koibito”, or “A Forest is the Ocean’s Lover”, has been working for a long time from that perspective. That organization’s mission, like that of OISCA and the Iwanuma government further south, is to plant trees.

To quote a friend’s e-mail, “Mr. Hatakeyama, an oyster cultivator, is the man in the center who is really the personality who started planting trees in the mountains for a good environment in the ocean and eventually good harvest of the oysters. His word “http://www.mori-umi.org/” has spread and become very popular nation-wide. He started this movement and his hidden agenda was to stop the government’s plan to build a dam 8km away from the sea, which would have influenced the quality of the sea water and given damage to the ocean environment and to the oyster cultivation.  Eventually, the dam was not built because the movement of protecting the ocean environment by planting trees became so popular. He is now fighting to stop the high dyke after the tsunami.”

Let’s hope for his success.

Also on the bright side, the port area is now filled with working boats and a few fish-packing enterprises. 

 

The bay is strung with poles for collecting oysters and other forms of the ocean’s bounty.

 
There is also a small, but colorful temporary shopping complex. It consisted of teeny enterprises, selling seaweed and fish, local products and souvenirs. 

And of course, there are restaurants with very fresh offering from the most recent catches. After all, fishing boats are docked right next to this complex.
              
When I visited Kesen-numa a few days ago, I talked with one student who lived there. She had been trapped in her school over night and then had spent two weeks in a evacuation center without knowing if her parents were alive or not. Thankfully they survived.

I asked her if it was hard to move forward after her heart had been forced opened and wounded so deeply. “I’m still very sad,” she said thoughtfully. “But I remember the words of my grandparents when I was little. They died in the tsunami, but I can still hear what they said very clearly. ‘We Japanese have been through so much. And we never give up. It is essential to live anchored in the past, fully in the present, and never forgetting the promise of tomorrow.’”

Love,
Anne

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